WHO - Covid-19 policy briefs 10th December 2024

[Kalliope]

Yesterday the WHO Director-General gave opening remarks at the last media briefing of the year. He provided a general summary including about Covid where he said the following:

The end of this month, the 31st of December, will mark the fifth anniversary of the first reports to WHO of pneumonia caused by a then-unknown pathogen.

In the past five years, more than 7 million deaths from COVID-19 have been reported to WHO, but we estimate the true death toll to be at least three times higher.

We cannot talk about COVID in the past tense. It’s still with us, it still causes acute disease and “long COVID”, and it still kills.

On average this year, about 1000 deaths from COVID-19 have been reported to WHO each week – and that’s just from the few countries that are still reporting.

The world might want to forget about COVID-19, but we cannot afford to.

WHO continues to support countries to prevent and manage COVID-19 alongside other health threats.

Today, WHO is releasing a package of policy briefs to help countries update their policies to monitor and reduce circulation of COVID-19, and to reduce illness, death and long-term consequences of the disease.

(Source)

Here is link to the policy briefs on:

COVID-19 surveillance
COVID-19 testing
Clinical management of COVID-19
COVID-19 vaccination
Infection prevention and control measures for COVID-19 in health care settings
Building trust through risk communication and communicate engagement and infodemic management

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/covid-19-policy-briefs?

 

[Kalliope]

From Clinical management of COVID-19:

• Countries are encouraged to provide access to follow-up care to detect post COVID-19 condition (also known as long COVID or PCC).

From Infection prevention and control measures for COVID-19 in health care settings:

• Health care settings can amplify infectious disease outbreaks, including COVID-19. Maintaining effective infection prevention and control (IPC) programmes is, therefore, paramount.